Opinion
Obama travels to Africa – Trip should be a great learning opportunity for him
By Chen Weihua
U.S. President Barack Obama will take off later this week on a trip to Kenya and Ethiopia, his first trip to the 2 nations as chief executive of the world’s superpower.
Obama bypassed Kenya, his father’s ancestral homeland, during a visit to the region in 2013, over concerns that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy-president, William Ruto, were facing charges by the International Criminal Court – charges that have since been dropped.
Mwangi Kimenyi, a senior fellow and former director of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution who passed away on June 6 this year, suggested in an article in February that Obama’s upcoming trip to Africa should cover at least the countries of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya.
He described Obama’s previous African destinations, such as Ghana, Egypt, Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa, as “safe bets” for meeting some peace and governance thresholds. He said Obama has avoided countries facing major challenges such as terrorism and poor governance records.
For a long while, many scholars, including Kimenyi, felt that the United States under Obama has lagged behind countries such as China, India, Brazil and even Turkey in its engagement with Africa.
However, during his trip in 2013, Obama announced initiatives to deepen commercial relations and the launch of the first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit to be held in 2014, much like the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation started in 2000.
While the U.S. Agency for International Development has been present in Ethiopia for a long time, Obama is sure to see the growing Chinese influence in the second-most populous African nation.
The impressive African Union headquarters Obama will visit in Addis Ababa was built as a gift from the Chinese government. Inaugurated in 2012, it has become a landmark in the Ethiopian capital.
In Addis Ababa, Obama is likely to see other signs of China’s impact, such as the huge billboard by Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE, which have been investing in telecommunications infrastructure there. There is also the Eastern Industrial Zone just outside Addis Ababa. As the first industrial zone in Ethiopia, it has drawn some 20 Chinese companies investing in a wide range of areas from autos to shoemaking, and creating thousands of jobs for local people.
In Ethiopia, many investors feel they are seeing the China of the early 1980s, as it was about to embark on a three-decade run of double-digit economic growth.
